why didnt you bother learning how to mix if you had a club gig for 5 years?
maybe because it isnt terribly important, maybe you feel the tunes sound right at the pitch/speed at which it was recorded, maybe because you play music with human drummers, maybe sometimes folks want a certain vibe with their requests and mixing that particular sound is pointless...Ive had club gigs for just as many years and would rather spend hours and hours seeking out top shelf records than spending hours and hours honing "skills" that ,for the most part, most people out on the dancefloor and myself dont care about.
why didnt you bother learning how to mix if you had a club gig for 5 years?
maybe because it isnt terribly important, maybe you feel the tunes sound right at the pitch/speed at which it was recorded, maybe because you play music with human drummers, maybe sometimes folks want a certain vibe with their requests and mixing that particular sound is pointless...Ive had club gigs for just as many years and would rather spend hours and hours seeking out top shelf records than spending hours and hours honing "skills" that ,for the most part, most people out on the dancefloor and myself dont care about.
why didnt you bother learning how to mix if you had a club gig for 5 years?
maybe because it isnt terribly important, maybe you feel the tunes sound right at the pitch/speed at which it was recorded, maybe because you play music with human drummers, maybe sometimes folks want a certain vibe with their requests and mixing that particular sound is pointless...Ive had club gigs for just as many years and would rather spend hours and hours seeking out top shelf records than spending hours and hours honing "skills" that ,for the most part, most people out on the dancefloor and myself dont care about.
What he said. Granted I played old soul and funk. I can tell you that I had people peeing in their pants with the right combos of songs. My favorite thing was drop weird rock tunes that no one expected. One night I played Clapton's Hand Jive pithced to 8+ right in the middle of a set of raers. Place fell apart.
My partner, a former house, DJ was a great mixer. He did shit that would astound me. At the end of the day though, I was every bit as entertaining if not more. He would be the first to tell you that.
PS I give credit where credit is due. Great technical skills are a valid form of entertaining but will not save you from a shitty selection of tunes. Thus selection>skills.
in answer to your earlier question, I played at a club in Portland called the Goodfoot on Friday nights.
David Mancuso became a legend for his club the Loft in the 70's despite never mixing a record. The way the audiophile decks and amp was set up didn't allow it. He plays each track in its entirity
i always thought that was his steez, i seem to remember reading an article where he was extolling the virtues of playing the entire song.. but you're saying it was becuase of the equipment he was working w/? just curious, tryin to get my mind right on this one..
It was mentioned earlier in this thread about mancusos mixing or lack there of. I thinks its interesting everyone always points this out. I suppose everyone is so used to beatmatching now that its such an shocking anomoly when people dont. This guy was the master of selection - thats why he was able to pull of playing a track all the way through till silence, take the record off, pull a record out of a sleeve, then put it on the table and hit play - and his parties went off and are considered legendary.
to clear up the confusion in the quote above:
when he started he did not mix records. after the Loft Parties had become a weekly occurance he invited some other djs over to one of the parties. These guys tought Mancuso how to do the new beatmatching tricks they were developing (among them was Francis Grasso - the first dj to create not stop seamless mixes via matching beats) and Mancuso started to implement them into his performance. Over some time he started to develop very staunch beliefs on music, sound reproduction, integrity of art in its original form, etc, and this led him to go back to playing songs as they were recorded with the absolute highest fidelity possible.
I am very eager to hear him do his thing. I have never read an account of someone who didnt appreciate what he doesn behind the turntables. errrr....correction, turntable.
bottom line is....what makes more money for the club/bar? Are "skills" bringing folks through the door and having them drop loot at the bar, or is it the type of music you are playing? Im guessing that seamless blending and beatmatching does not have as much influence on revenue as selection.
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maybe because it isnt terribly important, maybe you feel the tunes sound right at the pitch/speed at which it was recorded, maybe because you play music with human drummers, maybe sometimes folks want a certain vibe with their requests and mixing that particular sound is pointless...Ive had club gigs for just as many years and would rather spend hours and hours seeking out top shelf records than spending hours and hours honing "skills" that ,for the most part, most people out on the dancefloor and myself dont care about.
What he said. Granted I played old soul and funk. I can tell you that I had people peeing in their pants with the right combos of songs. My favorite thing was drop weird rock tunes that no one expected. One night I played Clapton's Hand Jive pithced to 8+ right in the middle of a set of raers. Place fell apart.
My partner, a former house, DJ was a great mixer. He did shit that would astound me. At the end of the day though, I was every bit as entertaining if not more. He would be the first to tell you that.
PS I give credit where credit is due. Great technical skills are a valid form of entertaining but will not save you from a shitty selection of tunes. Thus selection>skills.
in answer to your earlier question, I played at a club in Portland called the Goodfoot on Friday nights.
Anytime girls and drinking are involved, im going with selection all day. But if you really wanna get the panties wet you still gotta have skills.